Mayor Eric Adams Delivers Fiery Speech at Gracie Mansion Jewish Heritage Month Celebration

 Report and Photos By Lieba Nesis

On Wednesday May 29th 2024 more than 750 attendees gathered at Gracie Mansion from 5:30-7:30 PM to celebrate Jewish Heritage month with glatt kosher hamburgers and frankfurters, corn on the cob and a lavish dessert display. The primary agenda on the table however was decrying the rampant antisemitism that has become de rigueur in the halls of academia and politics.  Jews are confounded as social media stars akin to Dan Bilzerian tweet “Fuck Israel” and call Israel a terrorist state.  How can we relay to the formerly esteemed Columbia University that faculty that applaud Hamas’s massacre as “military action” must be terminated immediately? How do we tell CEO of IMG Ari Emanuel that accepting his Simon Wiesenthal award on May 2024 with a call to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is as traitorous as it gets? Hey Ari instead of speaking out about Bibi why not address your clients Gigi and Bella Hadid’s antisemitism as they hurl accusations of Israel unlawfully harvesting Palestinian organs while calling for the annihilation of the State of Israel-oh yeah you might lose some business if you do that.

Diametrically opposed to these diabolical naysayers is Mayor of New York Eric Adams who has spoken out against antisemitism in the boldest of terms; who has himself been the object of derision whether on a plane from Miami or the streets of New York as hecklers harass and harangue this defender of Israel.  Adams has always expressed gratitude for the Jewish community’s alliance with the civil rights movement and has reciprocated with audacious statements and action. Tonight the impeccably clad Adams, gave a rousing and impassioned speech as he lamented the state of our youth: as only 18% of those from the ages of 18-34 claim to love America. The current radicalization on campuses where students are taught to hate Jews and their country was concerning to the Mayor as is the silence of the masses which Adams attributed to fear “of being canceled” enrapturing the crowd as he yelled “well I say cancel me any day I’m not going to sit back and allow this to happen to the country I love.” Adams called on the country to reject the normalization of hate and antisemitism while rebutting the chants of “destroy from the river to the sea” with “build from the river to the sea- embrace from the river to sea.”  He reassured New Yorkers that the City will never devolve into a place where your yarmulke has to be removed before walking the streets.

“There is more of us then there is of them the loudest is not the majority”-Adams exclaimed, assuring the crowd the majority would remain victorious.  One of the most vocal proponents of Israel, honoree and music executive Scooter Braun, helped bring the Nova festival exhibit from Israel to New York along with US partners Joe Teplow and Josh Kadden.  Braun, the grandson of Holocaust survivors whose family came from Hungary to Manhattan in 1956 noted the silence of the music industry and said the Nova Festival was no different from Coachella, Stagecoach or Governor’s Ball.    He urged Jews not to hide as he said every Jew in the last 1,000 years would switch places with us as we were still in the golden era.  Kibbutz Be’eri resident Shoshan Haran might disagree with that assessment as she was kidnapped along with six family members by Hamas for 50 days.  Haran recalled that fateful October 7th morning where her husband and sister were murdered after Hamas bulldozed their door in order to kidnap and kill.

Her son-in-law Tal Shoham remains in captivity as she vowed to speak out until he was returned. While saying she was advised to keep mum about her ordeal she said she read books on how Jews survived the Nazis in order to cope.  Another honoree, social media sensation Montana Tucker who works tirelessly to combat antisemitism, thanked the Mayor for his intrepid advocacy as she vowed to honor her Holocaust grandparents memory by fighting eternally for the Jewish people.

The Mayor presented a special award to departing Jewish liaison Joel Eisdorfer who served the mayor with steadfast loyalty and professionalism as his right hand advisor.  Adams heralded Eisdorfer as “a great American, a great member of the Jewish community and a great member of the human race.”  The evening was replete with NYPD and FDNY officers some of whom donned yarmulkes along with a healthy smattering of Jewish influencers including Lizzy Savetsky, Malcolm Hoenlein and Mordechai Weiss.  Weiss started the organization 1000 Strong where he gathers over a thousand millennials to raise money and awareness for Israel with every penny donated to orphans, widows and soldiers in the Israeli army.  Joined by his real estate developer parents Miriam and Robert Weiss  the group posed on the Gracie Mansion steps with dozens of influencers. African American Israeli rapper Nissim Black concluded the evening with some hefty tunes-a paradigm of the pivotal nexus between the Jewish and African American communities which is often overlooked.